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Blimey! a good old rant about Buses and Music.

May 16, 2011

I’ve noticed of late that ‘youths’ (by that I mean those younger than my 23 years) have taken to overtly and most obviously revealing to the world and the general public their questionable taste in music.

By this I mean I sit on the bus at 7:30 in the morning (the early prelude to work when I need soothing, relaxing sounds to ease me into the day) and have to- through no choice of my own– listen to what I can only describe as ‘tinny’, electronicised, lack of actual singing and indescript (because such music does not deserve the time of coming up with words to describe it) sounds.

Track after soul-destroying track plays, although you can’t really tell where one song starts and one song ends as in reality it all sounds the same. It makes me sad that this is all some people will know, missing out on life’s greatest gift. It is played aloud on phones or on portable speaker type things so that we can all share in and enjoy the emotional deepness and thought provoking essence of these songs.

Not only can we enjoy this ‘free music’ on the bus but anywhere you may wish for a bit of quiet time to yourself; walking down the street, shopping in the supermarket or now even when taking your dog for a walk in the previously peaceful woods.

So all the while that I’m sitting on the bus I have two thoughts bounding through my head…

‘Do they not know that headphones have been invented for a reason?’ and ‘why is it only terribly music played aloud in these scenarios?’

Why not a bit of Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, The Smiths, The Cure, Ben Folds, Jeff Buckley, The Shins, Faure, Beethoven,Terri Reid, The Kinks, ELO etc…the possibilities are endless, most music in the world is better than this so why revert to this?

The answer that comes to mind is because ‘this’ is what the music industry has told people to listen to (don’t get me wrong some music in the main charts is fantastic but most is terrible at best), where image drives sound and talent for instruments has been replaced for the ability to play around with things on computers.

Music is supposed to be about choice and freedom to express, the variety is endless so please do not be hemmed in and trapped by what somebody else tells you to listen to-discover your own music that suits you and your mood perfectly because it is out there to be found and by not looking beyond what is in the charts you are seriously missing out.

The journey of searching for and the delicious joy of arriving upon a beautiful musician whose music seems created for you in that moment, that speaks directly to you and you know this is just the start of a strange and emotional relationship in which you will get to know a piece of this person you have probably never met, you will feel like you know them personally through their music which they have shared with you and the world.

And when you find that first song which echoes in your head and pounds on your thoughts to think about the world differently and you know there is more of this person’s music for you to explore, more emotions of joy, despair, hope and confusion for them to play with, you realise it was worth the search.

One of the things that frustrates me about this life is that time here is limited and so I as one individual will never be able to listen to all the music ever created and in this I know I will miss hidden gems, diamonds in the rough of music that would have impacted on my life in a way that will always be unknown, so all I can do is listen and search as much as I can.

Just to add to this rant that started off with my daily experience on the bus….has the concept of queuing completely died out in England, once the country renowned for it’s queuing sentiment.

We used to be able to say, ‘well our european neighbours may have better public transport, services, weather, food…but goodness me it’s alright because here in England we have manners and actually queue in a orderly and respectful manner’.

It seems this last vestige of quintessential ‘Englishness’ is on the decline -note to those I regularly get on the bus with in the morning- If I am there before you and have most times been there for 10-15 mins before you please do not arrive just as the bus comes and barge in front of me. I have been up 10-15 mins earlier than you and as a reward deserve to choose my seat on the bus and not be jostled to the flip down seats which are hard to balance on especially when reading. Thank you to the majority of you who still know what queuing is.

By the way I am under no delusion that this post makes me sound old before my time, grumpy and generally unpleasant, I’m usually not these things but terrible music being forced into my ears and lack of politeness annoys me no end!

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I'm a collector of words and ideas...sometimes my own sometimes other peoples.
This blog is part of that collection and record of a chronicled life.
'and days careen
like the waters
of a river rushing
to the sea' (Sparklehorse)